This invention relates to interactive searching.
Referring to FIG. 1a, when a computer user needs to search a file of searchable information 1, such as a file containing the text of issued patents, he typically enters a query 2 containing keywords interconnected by boolean operators. A search engine 3 then searches the file of searchable information 1 for records (e.g., patents) which satisfy the query 2. Each record either satisfies or does not satisfy the query 2. The search engine 3 produces a set of hits 4 representing the records that satisfy the query. The hits 4 may be presented to the user in various ways. One common approach is to present the user with a list of the hits 4 and to allow the user to examine selected hits.
Referring to FIG. 1b, the searchable information 1 may be derived from underlying information 5. In some kinds of searching, the searchable information 1 may not always accurately represent the portions of the underlying information 5 that the user is trying to find. This is the case, for example, if the searchable information 1 is a text file generated by a speech recognizer from underlying information 5 representing speech, because the words produced by a speech recognizer are sometimes not the words that were spoken. Files generated by speech recognizers sometimes include not only the recognized words but also confidence levels indicating the likelihood that a spoken word was correctly recognized.
The information in the searchable information 1 may be derived from an audio signal that is linked to a video signal from, e.g., a television broadcast feed. Some files of this kind are extremely long.